• iii@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    In the context of this tweet most important differences are:

    SQL is a language for querying databases.

    Most common used databases are relational databases. With relational databases you can setup, well, relations and constraints.

    Imagine you have 2 tables (2 excel sheets) one with people, and one with home ownership. You can set the following constraint: (1) each person shows up only once in the people table. And the following relation: (2) every home owner must refer to an existing person in people table.

    When modifying the table contents, the system checks if no constraints or relations are violated.

    Excel, just like a badly designed relational databse, would, for example, have no problem with duplicate people, or home ownership referring to non-existant people.